#DoShaveNovember – Death Of Hipster Beard Trend

If you think beards are still in trend, you’re clearly living in past. Wake up! It is official – the decade of hipsters has passed its prime. I briefly discussed the end of beard trend when I reviewed the Gillette flexball razor a month ago. Oh yeah, I’ve gotten myself a new razor! It’s time to come in terms with reality. The over-indulgence of the beard trend powered by social media has led to competitive beard syndrome predominantly among under-30 men in order to look older and prove a point on masculinity. The internet drastically changed the very sentiment that hipster beard originally stood for. The beard obsession has now become female equivalent of size-zero-syndrome. Ironically, most of my girl friends find clean shaven men as more approachable just like how most men seem to prefer curves over reed-thin girls. The cool people in fashion decided to bid adieu to the hipster beard even before it became a social stereotype. Celebs like Tom Hardy and Leonardo di Caprio trolled the pognophilic memes equating beard with fashion-forwardness and machoism by returning to the classic clean shaven look.

Tom Hardy returning to the classic clean shaven look

The decline of hipster aesthetics began right when the counterculture fashion statement went mainstream few years ago. Ironically, the original Hipster ethics that defies conformity has become conventional to an extent that every Tom, Dick & Harry is now aping the too-cool-to-school college lad who didn’t wash his denims for 3 straight weeks or the pot-addled graphic designer for whom every other month is #NoShaveNovember. The Himalayan rise in popularity of Hipster trend alienates the original bunch of people who sported a beard for more than just aesthetic reasons. Last thing a Hipster wants is to be is generic and the Hipsters of 2015 are not only generic but are late on adopting even the generic. Fashion is no stranger to subcultures where a specific set of people went against the conventional social norms and took pride in being different. Every subculture from Hipsters to Hippies, Punks and Mods was later embraced by rest of the society, nullifying the values that the subculture originally stood for. Everything in fashion happens in cycle and the Hipster trend has reached the state of obsolete after trickling down to fashion laggards. Sporting a beard in 2015 and you call yourself a hipster? Think again. Did you always sport the beard or your aesthetic senses were aroused after spotting a #NoShaveNovemeber meme on Instagram? If you identify yourself with the latter, you may want to shave sooner to not look like one of those style-muggles wearing bell-bottoms in 2008.

Return of classic clean shave

So, the hipster beard is dead… what next? The urban creative class, a segment of generation Z made up of young graphic designers, models, musicians, short-film makers, digital media entrepreneurs and artists have taken a stand to pursue their dreams and adopt a professional and minimal outlook. The Cutesters and Yuccies of Instagram, sporty and stylish Nu-Lad and several other youth subcultures are having a speedy renaissance by reinventing classics in young and lively spirit. The Gen-Z are on Instagram, use Tinder, use uber/ola cabs, love Ed Sheeran, BuzzFeed, Game of Thrones, Netflix, Pixar, TED talks and above all… care about style & grooming. They read fashion blogs, like dressing up & post #ootds on Instagram. The young and urban creative class is taking a clean, minimal and classic stand. The style tribes of tomorrow are returning to the classic clean shave. I got my own Gillette Fusion Proglide few months ago. So, what are you waiting for? Buy a razor and #DoShaveNovember